It is well known to provide gaming devices having a certain average percentage payback to the player. Slot gaming machines typically predetermine the payback percentage to be around 90%, or 90 cents on the dollar. When slot gaming machines include progressive jackpots, the payback percentage of the machine can increase towards 100%.
Progressive slot machines contain jackpots that increase every time a player plays the slot machine. A linked progressive includes two or more slot machines connected to a common jackpot, each of which individually contribute to the jackpot. An individual progressive slot machine has a self-contained jackpot, wherein the jackpot grows with every play. The machines usually take a percentage of the players bet such as 10%, and add it to the jackpot. The jackpots can reach sizeable amounts, e.g., $1 million, before a player “hits” or wins the jackpot. Such sizeable jackpots become very attractive to players. Furthermore, as the jackpot grows, so does overall payout percentage of the game.
Regardless of the type of progressive, known games typically require the player to play the maximum bet to be eligible to win the progressive jackpot. Even on a single payline dollar machine, the maximum bet can be $5 (max bet on most slot machines is 5 credits per payline). Many players who are not willing to wager such an amount, or consistently willing to wager such an such an amount, are thus excluded from having an opportunity to win the progressive jackpot and enjoy its associated payout increase. A known progressive slot machine that requires a max bet to enable the player to win a jackpot includes a “Megabucks” game by IGT, the assignee of this invention.
Other known multi-payline slot machines enable the player to win a predetermined, i.e., fixed, jackpot when the player plays or activates all the paylines of the gaming device. A payline is a series of adjacent or juxtaposed symbols that the game analyzes to determine if the prayer has won or lost a game of the slot machine. On a machine displaying five reels and three symbols per reel, it is not uncommon for the machine to have five, nine or fifteen different paylines. The machines commonly enable a player to wager up to $5 on one or more paylines. The machines usually require the player to bet the lines sequentially, i.e., one, two, three as opposed to one, three, eight, and most machines require the same bet to be placed on each line. On a $1 machine, the player may again have to wager at least $5 to play each of the five lines to be eligible for a jackpot. Many players are again unwilling and thus excluded from having an opportunity to win a multi-payline jackpot and enjoy its associated payout increase. A known slot machine that requires a player to bet all paylines to enable the player to win a progressive jackpot includes a “Jackpot Bingo” game by Casino Data Systems. “Jackpot Bingo” also offers different jackpots if the player bets a second dollar on each line and plays the maximum number of lines. This game therefore offers two different jackpots: one for a $1 bet per line and a larger one for a $2 bet per line.
Other slot machines require the player to wager the max bet, i.e., the highest possible number of credits on each of the paylines, or max lines, i.e. at least one coin per payline before the game enables the player to win a predetermined award from a game of the gaming device. A known slot machine that requires a player to wager a max bet to enable the player to win an award includes a “Video Wheel of Fortune” game by IGT. In each of these situations, it is desirable to provide a gaming device having a game that enables any player to be eligible to win the award and enjoy its associated payout increase, regardless of the amount wagered.
Another drawback to known jackpots including progressive jackpots is that once enabled, if the players bet exceeds the threshold level necessary to enable the jackpot, the known games do not reward the player for exceeding the threshold. These types of games provide the same jackpot award with the same odds of winning the jackpot regardless of whether the player plays 1 or 5 credits per payline. This creates a disincentive to bet more coins since the payback percentage decreases as the player's wager increases. For example, a “Tropical Link” game by Aristocrat Technologies, Inc. activates a jackpot award when any of the paylines are played but does not reward the player for wagering multiple coins or credits on a payline.
There exists at least one known slot machine that increases the player's odds of winning a jackpot based upon the number of coins or credits played. Another Aristocrat game called “Hyperlink” maintains a system separate and apart from the normal operation of the game of the slot machine for adjusting the odds based upon the amount of the players wager. In the Aristocrat system, the system makes a separate evaluation based solely on the number of coins wagered by the player to determine whether the player is eligible to win a jackpot. The game makes the separate evaluation completely independent of the events of the game play. Gaming device play does not determine whether the game awards a jackpot; rather, a system connected to the game makes this determination.
For example, in the Aristocrat system, if the player bets one coin, the Aristocrat system can maintain a 1/10,000 chance of making the player eligible to play for the jackpot, whereby if the player bets forty-five coins, the Aristocrat system would then maintain a 45/10,000 chance of making the player eligible for the Jackpot. This machine, however, does not employ a game that the player sees and/or plays that sets forth, employs or carries out the determination using the odds dictated by the amount of the player's wager.